"Press coverage of Russia's Alexei Navalny and some of Europe's opposition figures is startling in its myopia and double standards. Thus we have the bizarre situation where a figure who makes Marine Le Pen look like Mary Poppins - and has expressed outright hostility to 'progressives' - is hailed as a modern Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn by Western correspondents.

That said, the fact they've had to hitch their wagon to a figure they'd militantly oppose in any Western state, serves to expose the bankruptcy of their ideas. And the complete intellectual collapse of Russia's westernization movement."

A simultaneous bankruptcy of a toxic and Russophobic, pro-imperialist western 'liberal' intellectual class is also very noticeable.

"The NSA hacked the private mobile of German Chancellor Merkel, but nobody is saying, 'we must protect ourselves from America hacking us,' said Annie Machon, former British intelligence officer. 'It's an ongoing process of demonizing Russia,' she added."

"Sanity is finally winning over. After raising all kinds of shambolic rumors about 'Russian interference' the 'western' intelligence agencies are walking back their previous outrageous claims. The disinformation campaign against Russia is falling apart for lack of any evidence..."

Except Clapper is talking specifically about evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

All they really have is two top officials and Trump himself meeting with the Russian ambassador and lying about it. Nothing, right? Just perjury for no reason at all.

Regarding the concerns that it is Russophobia, or Democratic machinations:

" These concerns are legitimate, but they don’t settle the matter. After all, there is no reason that the narrative of Trump’s unexplained connections to Putin’s government has to be framed in a conspiratorial or xenophobic way. Even the most innocent explanation of all the available facts still suggests that Trump’s close associates have made compromising connections to dubious characters, including oligarchs and Russian intelligence agents. On the issue of xenophobia, it’s worth noting that an alliance with Russia seems part of Bannon’s larger project of a global alt-right, an informal alliance with the likes of Nigel Farage and Marine Le Pen as well as Putin, all in opposition to an imagined monolithic Islamic threat. "

"...But it was neither Russian disinformation nor false news. It was true. Freeland's grandfather had worked with the Nazis. And as the Globe and Mail eventually reported, Freeland has known of her grandfather's wartime activities for at least two decades.

The lesson for Freeland is that she should be more straightforward."

If it was revealed that she had lied about her grandfather working for the Russians instead of the Nazis, she would have been gone already. Canada has never had a problem with fascists over Russians. Or making up and believing ridiculous stories about them.

I am glad to know that in our brave new world that being an editor of a Nazi praising paper has the same moral equivalency as fighting in the resistance. War is hell and if you survive who cares how many people didn't.

"Navalny's criminal record and opportunistic racism ["Don't feed the Caucasus!"] means he cannot win - something obvious to everyone except the few [Russophobic western] liberals who continue to support him."

Probably fears most of all that Navalny might go away, be replaced by a serious contender or be popped off by his own CIA friends, so as to attempt to create a far more serious threat to Putin's popularity in death, than he ever could be in life. His numbers have thus far been much less than spectacular. Everybody knows he's a corrupt, sold out loser.

It seems that Russia deals with "illegal" protests in much the same way as Canadian cities do. No permit means the cops detain anyone they think is an organizer. The BBC reports didn't say how much the fines are for protesting without a permit. The other reports seem to indicate that they were detained for a few hours and released. I have already vowed to stand against kinder Morgan and the RCMP will be arresting and detaining people.

Alexei Navalny leads a party that is neo-con in perspective and that perspective in Russia after the 1990's has as much support as Marxist-Leninists garner in Canada. Alexei Navalny himself at the height of his popularity ran for a Mayor's job and come in a distant second.

Of course according to Western media he is the real voice of Russian much like the Free Syrian Army speaks for Syrians. So far the Russians seem to have prevented the Western powers from arming their dissidents. Any power that stops our government's spy agencies from arming their dissidents is by definition a totalitarian regime and proof they need to be over thrown.

"The house journal of Britain's liberal elite believes Russian lives are 'tough and thankless'. It's another example of the dreadful quality of English-language coverage of this country.

Surely this is the only explanation for how the Guardian - a rabidly anti-Russian British newspaper - ended up captioning a report from Irkutsk last week with mind-bogglingly offensive text? Because the Guardian and other Western media outlets, largely restrict their pages to voices hostile to Russia and generally dismiss bearers of alternative opinions as 'shills', a toxic atmosphere has been created.

Where journalists are aware that if they don't convey antipathy to the 'Putin regime' in their dispatches, they won't be hired. And that's what has things the way they are."

In Canada the NDP did not join the student and other protests in the streets of Montreal because they were not authorized. I also think that protests should not require permits however if requiring permits and arresting people who organize rallies without them means the country can't be a democracy then Canada is not a democracy either.

Since I don't believe we live in a real democracy I can agree that Russia is also not a democracy. But then the US is less democratic than either us or the Russians so I guess the term "democracy" in the 21st century is really meaningless.

In Canada the NDP did not join the student and other protests in the streets of Montreal because they were not authorized. I also think that protests should not require permits however if requiring permits and arresting people who organize rallies without them means the country can't be a democracy then Canada is not a democracy either.

Since I don't believe we live in a real democracy I can agree that Russia is also not a democracy. But then the US is less democratic than either us or the Russians so I guess the term "democracy" in the 21st century is really meaningless.

Don't forget that there is empirical proof that the U.S. is not a democracy, and I suspect the situation would be similar in Canada if someone did the same sort of study here.

"Alexey Navalny, the organiser of yesterday's unsanctioned protest in Moscow and the person who called the protests elsewhere in Russia, has now been convicted by a Moscow court of organising an unsanctioned protest and has been ordered to pay a $350 fine.

This is part of the regular circus between the Russian authorities and Navalny. He pretends to be persecuted and they pretend to punish him. In reality though, he now has two convictions for serious embezzlement as well as multiple public order offences - some minor, some less so - he remains free and continues exactly as before, with the authorities doing nothing to enforce the various sanctions the Russian courts have imposed on him.

I suspect the Russian authorities have long since concluded that because of his arrogance and extremist views Navalny is a disruptive and divisive force within Russia's liberal 'non-system' opposition, not a consolidating one, which is one reason why they tolerate his activities and his persistent law-breaking..."

Why is it wrong to suggest Russia might have interferred in the recent US election? I don't think anyone, at least not here, is suggesting that the USA does not get involved in Russian affairs. They are related but separate issues.

It is not inconcievable that Russia would interfer in the US election it is also not a certainty. I personally think that the Russians would be more direct than leaking e-mails that were unflattering at worst. As for the insidious influence of RT that is also cited as Putin directed one should remember that Trump won the electoral college not the popular vote. I suspect that if one did an analysis of RT's viewership it likely reaches an infinitismal portion of homes in the red states.

Its not that it's inconcievable its just that this particular story is so absurd it could be a Spy v. Spy cartoon.

We may find out to what extent the Russians were involved when the Senate Intelligence Committee gets going. Regardless the Democrats only have themselves to blame because it they had been above board which they weren't, nothing could have been released to discredit them.

Except that as with most leaks, much of what is taken as evidence is not. It is people having private, casual conversations. And in other cases there is plenty of room for people, assuming bad intent, where there is none. That is how these hacks and smears work.

I have posted this before, but Lawrence Lessig's approach is a good one:

I’m a big believer in leaks for the public interest. That’s why I support Snowden, and why I believe the President should pardon him. But I can’t for the life of me see the public good in a leak like this — at least one that reveals no crime or violation of any important public policy.

We all deserve privacy. The burdens of public service are insane enough without the perpetual threat that every thought shared with a friend becomes Twitter fodder.

In another article (around the time of some similar leaks about Benghazi) I remember reading that these kinds of leaks could potentially damage diplomacy if people feel they cannot have casual conversations. They can also result in false assumptions when read by people who do not understand the context.

That aside from the fact that no, even if it had uncovered a crime (which it did not) it does not justify an illegal wiretap or hack. I don't think any of us would support the government having carte blanche to listen in on all our conversations because if we don't do anything wrong we have nothing to hide.

And if that hack was done with intent to damage the process, that is another matter, regardless of what it uncovered.

"Before the Tomahawk missiles start flying between Moscow and New York, Americans [and Canucklheads] had better educate themselves fast about the forces and the people who claim that Russia covered up a Syrian government gas attack on its own citizens..."

"At the apex of the Russia-gate hysteria, even before the extremely controversial chemical incident in Syria and the subsequent Tomahawk show - arguably a cinematographic show-off -- a Trump-conducted reset on Russia was already D.O.A., tomahawked by the Pentagon, Capitol Hill and media-misguided public opinion.

The masks at least have fallen - and these relentless intimations of Cold War 2.0 should be seen for what they are: the War Party's primal fear of Eurasia integration."

The Pepe Escobar article was also posted on Counterpunch, I read it there. The notion that a large part of American foreign policy towards Russia is motivated by the desire to prevent "Eurasian integration" is familiar to me and becoming increasingly plausible. It's certainly in keeping with their divide and rule tactics elsewhere.

"...So what happened? How did 'our' Cold War super-enemy become 'our' brand new top 'adversary' all over again, more than a quarter century after the tearing down of the Berlin Wall?

After Herr Donald was ironically installed in the White House by leading Russophobe and 'lying neo-liberal warmonger' (LNW) Hillary Clinton, Russia-hating took on a new and seductive political meaning for Democrats and their many US media allies..."

"Economic crisis at home and endless war abroad has placed finance and monopoly capital in political disarray. To distort the crisis, a state of anti-Russian madness has been prescribed to medicate political consciousness in rapidly changing times..."

The CNN undercover footage of the producer and now Van Jones is pretty devastating, I will be curious to see how this plays out. Unfortunately Trump has gained credibility here, and CNN deserves to reap what it sows.

Matt Taibbi on the CNN scandal. He's been so very very good this past year:

"But in the Trump era, the new threat is that we're replacing one bad commercial formula with another. This is borne out in the unsettling fact that media companies are suddenly awash in cash, despite public confidence in our work being at an all-time low. As Variety explains:

"Viewership for the primetime schedules of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC increased 55% to 4.8 million viewers in 2016, while daytime cable viewership grew 36%. In the first half of this year, viewing levels have not shrunk."

Instead of seeking out broad audiences by selling vanilla coverage and phony "balance," big media companies today are abandoning hope of being credible in both directions, and instead aggressively hunting for demographics. Being a quasi-official White House outlet like Breitbart or Infowars that targets Trump fans sells, but so does being "the opposition party."

Ya I don't get this retro demonization of Russia. Looks like a feeble attempt to resurrect McCarthyism. All started by the Nobel peace prize recipient Obama (who expanded US military campaigns, so much for an award from a white Western European country that never awarded Gandhi) and is trying to hang on by grabbing onto anything that can return those good old 1950's. Looks like the US is really uncomfortable/awkward being the #2 economy behind communist China. And now that the US is resorting to the Ferengi rules of acquisition 186 "kiss the ass that has more money than you" where do they go now?